> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Flow State Herald: Edition 2, the Knight (Aries rising) - URL: https://the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io/week-2026-10-17-aries/ - Published: 2026-10-17T15:50:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-20T17:38:46.000Z - Author: Flow Flower # The Flow State Herald 17 to 24 October 2026 · Edition 2 · Vol. I · No. 2 The Knight's edition, for Aries rising [](https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.32?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Icon of the New Testament Trinity, c. 1450, Byzantium, Constantinople, Tempera and gold on wood panel (poplar), The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.32?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). Gold leaf, red cloth and dark robes on a painted panel from Constantinople, with two seated figures either side of a star and a small tower at each end. Read this first - **The week:** Venus squares Pluto on Tue 20 Oct, the Sun enters Scorpio on Fri 23 Oct and Mercury turns retrograde on Sat 24 Oct, 3:12 am ET. - **For you:** The 8th house, the Vault: shared money, debts and private matters get a second look from all three events. - **Do this:** Tue 20 Oct: Tell one person which shared cost or debt you want settled first. - **Dates:** Tue 20 Oct, 2:56 am ET (06:56 UTC); Fri 23 Oct, 5:38 am ET (09:38 UTC); Sat 24 Oct, 3:12 am ET (07:12 UTC). Your birth chart is a castle: twelve rooms for twelve areas of life. Each week the planets open different doors, and this paper tells you which rooms are busy this week. New to the rooms? They are explained on the [castle page](https://the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io/castle/). [Album of the week](#album)[Your sky](#sky)[Tarot](#tarot)[Planet of the week](#planet)[Museum object](#cabinet)[The deep dive](#deep)[This week's calendar](#holy)[A line to keep](#line) [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40526?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) ## Album of the week **Press Color**, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, 1979\. About 22 minutes on the original eight-track album. [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/63af3dVbSgDM3sdpH5r17C?utm%5Fsource=anthropic&utm%5Fmedium=claude&go=1&nap%5Fweb=1&request%5Fid=e9eb1d2e-9349-41a2-b8cf-ccfb26b2964b). [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press%5FColor?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). Press Color was the debut album of the French singer Lizzy Mercier Descloux, released by ZE Records. Michel Esteban produced it, and it was recorded at Bob Blank's Blank Tapes studio in New York in February 1979, with reworkings of Arthur Brown's "Fire" and Lalo Schifrin's "Mission Impossible". It sold poorly but drew warm reviews in Europe. ## The Muster Roll: your sky this week You are the Knight, and the week's ground is shared money, debts and what stays hidden: Venus squares Pluto on Tue 20 Oct and the Sun rides in on Fri 23 Oct. What in the shared accounts needs a first move from you before Mercury turns back? ### Venus squares Pluto · Tue 20 Oct, 2:56 am ET **THE VAULT** · 8th house · shared resources, debts, endings and what is hidden **THE COURTYARD** · 11th house · friends, groups and shared hopes Venus in Scorpio sits in your 8th house and Pluto in Aquarius in your 11th house: shared money, debts and hidden matters meet friends, groups and shared hopes. Venus is retrograde, so the square reopens old terms rather than setting new ones. Pluto is moving forward again, which keeps the pressure steady. **Try this** - Tue 20 Oct: Tell one person, face to face or by voice message, which shared cost or debt you want settled first, and name a day for settling it. ♀︎ Venus in Scorpio, 8th house, square ♇︎ Pluto in Aquarius, 11th house. Exact Tue 20 Oct, 2:56 am ET (06:56 UTC). Venus retrograde. ### The Sun enters Scorpio · Fri 23 Oct, 5:38 am ET **THE VAULT** · 8th house The Sun leaves Libra, your 7th house of partners, and enters Scorpio, your 8th house, at 5:38 am ET. Attention moves from one-to-one relationships to what is shared and what is owed: joint accounts, promises, and anything kept private. Until then the Sun lights your partnerships. **Try this** - Fri 23 Oct: Write down three things you share with other people, such as money, space or promises, and star the one where you intend to hold the line. ☉︎ Sun enters Scorpio, 8th house, from Libra, 7th house. Exact Fri 23 Oct, 5:38 am ET (09:38 UTC). ### Mercury turns retrograde · Sat 24 Oct, 3:12 am ET **THE VAULT** · 8th house Mercury, already in Scorpio and your 8th house, turns retrograde at 3:12 am ET and stays retrograde for the rest of the week. Messages, paperwork and passwords tied to shared money, debts or private matters come back for a second look, so check figures, names and old versions twice. **Try this** - Fri 23 Oct: Read the latest statement, contract or message thread about a shared account line by line, and circle anything you cannot explain. ☿︎ Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio, 8th house. Exact Sat 24 Oct, 3:12 am ET (07:12 UTC). Venus is retrograde, so the square reopens old terms rather than setting new ones. ## Tarot 1\. What to charge at when Venus squares Pluto Ten of Swords, reversed **Look.** A figure lies face down under ten swords, red cloth below, yellow dawn behind; the picture is upside down. **Ask yourself.** Which of these ten swords could you pull out first? Show the reading **Then read.** Ten of Swords, reversed. The worst has already happened and you're getting up. Venus squares Pluto on Tuesday, so pick one thing to repair instead of the whole debt. 2\. Where to hold the line as the Sun enters Scorpio Nine of Swords, reversed **Look.** A figure in bed holds hands to face beneath nine swords on black, a rose quilt beside, all upside down. **Ask yourself.** What would the figure in the bed need to hear first? Show the reading **Then read.** Nine of Swords, reversed. The 3 am dread is easing, and a lot of it was never real. The Sun enters your 8th house on Friday: stick to the facts and drop the rest. 3\. What to yield to as Mercury turns retrograde Three of Wands, upright **Look.** A figure in a red cloak, back turned, grips one of three leafy staves above ships on a sea. **Ask yourself.** What on the far horizon is the figure waiting for? Show the reading **Then read.** Three of Wands, upright. The ships are out and you're watching the horizon. Mercury turns retrograde on Saturday, so expect answers to arrive later than planned. Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909. ## Planet of the week **In your chart.** Mercury is in your 8th house, the Vault. In ordinary life that is joint accounts, borrowed things, owed favours and private conversations. **This week.** Mercury, direct in Scorpio until then, turns retrograde on Sat 24 Oct, 3:12 am ET (07:12 UTC), and stays retrograde for the rest of the week. **Hindu.** Mercury in Hindu lore is Budha, born to Tara, the wife of Brihaspati, the gods' teacher, after Soma, the Moon god, abducted her. Soma carried Tara off, a war followed until Brahma stepped in, and Tara named Soma as the father; the boy was called Budha, "the wise" Sources: [Tara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara%5F%28Hindu%5Fgoddess%29?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io)) and [Budha](https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/budha?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). **Norse.** Wednesday, from Old English Woden's day, renders the Latin dies Mercurii: Roman writers equated Mercury with Odin. In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Odin wins the mead of poetry from the giant Suttungr and carries it back to the gods as an eagle Sources: [Skaldskaparmal](https://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Skaldskaparmal?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) and [Wednesday](https://www.wiktionary.com/wiki/Wednesday?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). **Chinese.** Mercury is Chenxing, the planet of Water. Water belongs to the north and to the Black Tortoise, a tortoise wound with a snake that guards the northern sky Sources: [the name](https://chinesenotes.com/words/68796.html?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) and [Four Symbols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four%5FSymbols?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329907?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Striding Thoth, 664–332 BCE, Egypt, Faience, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329907?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing, as a striding figure with an ibis head; Greeks later merged him with Hermes. [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44384?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Model of tortoise entwined with snake, Symbol of the North (Xuanwu), 11th century, China, Porcelain with bluish-white glaze (Jingdezhen qingbai ware), The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44384?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). The tortoise wound with a snake, the Xuanwu symbol of the north, sits at lower left among tomb figures in this photograph. ## The Relic Chest: the museum object [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/325584?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Helmet with divine figures beneath a bird with outstretched wings, ca. 1500–1100 BCE, Elamite, Bronze, gold foil over bitumen, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/325584?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). **Look first.** A green bronze helmet shaped like a dome carries three gold figures in tall arched panels across its front. Above them a gold bird of prey spreads its wings with its beak pointing down, and round studs line the rim. **Context.** Elamite metalworkers in south-western Iran made it between about 1500 and 1100 BCE, from bronze and gold foil over bitumen. The Met reads it as a high-ranking warrior's helmet, perhaps worn for special occasions. **Notice.** Look at the central figure's scaled lower body. The Met suggests a water god, either Inshushinak or Napirisha, with the figures there to protect the wearer. ## The deep dive How did Greek texts by "Hermes Trismegistus" come to be believed older than Moses and Plato, and how did a close reading of their Greek in 1614 overturn that? Around 1460 a manuscript holding an incomplete Greek Corpus Hermeticum reached Florence. One account says a monk, Leonardo da Pistoia, brought it from Macedonia for Cosimo de' Medici. Cosimo had Marsilio Ficino set his Plato translations aside and put it into Latin at once; the Latin version dates to 1463. The texts were credited to Hermes Trismegistus, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest", a figure that joins the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth. Ficino took him for a wise Egyptian priest older than Plato and a source for him. That belief rested on a misdating. In 1614 Isaac Casaubon, a Swiss-born scholar, read the Greek itself. Its style and content, he argued, belonged to the first centuries CE and not to ancient Egypt. Today the texts are placed at about 100 to 300 CE. Interpretation is where scholars part. Frances Yates called Casaubon's redating a blow to Hermetic natural theology, while Jan Assmann and others note that belief in an older origin carried on afterwards. [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/195060?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), probably 1490–99, Bronze, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/195060?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). Marsilio Ficino in profile on a bronze medal of the 1490s; his Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum dates to 1463. **To think about:** What would you chase across a continent for a half-finished book? Go further: [The Hermetic tradition, Source Library](https://ficino.sourcelibrary.org/press/hermetic-tradition?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Sources: [Encyclopedia.com, Hermeticism](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/hermeticism?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io); [Bryn Mawr Classical Review](https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/?p=25498&ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io); [Source Library, Isaac Casaubon](https://sourcelibrary.org/encyclopedia/Isaac%20Casaubon?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io); [Source Library, the Hermetic tradition](https://ficino.sourcelibrary.org/press/hermetic-tradition?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). ## This week's calendar - **Sat 17 Oct:** **Jewish:** Shabbat Noach, when the Torah portion about Noah, the flood, the ark and the rainbow covenant is read. [Source](https://download.hebcal.com/v2/h/YW1wPSZjPW9mZiZtYWo9b24mbWY9b24mbWluPW9uJm1vZD1vbiZtb250aD0xMCZueD1vbiZzPW9uJnNzPW9uJnY9MSZ5ZWFyPTIwMjY/hebcal%5F2026%5Foct.pdf?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). - **Mon 19 Oct:** **Hindu:** Maha Navami, ninth day of Navratri, with Ayudha Puja honouring tools and instruments. [Source](https://www.smartpuja.com/blog/dussehra-vijayadashami-2026-date-muhurat-puja/?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). - **Tue 20 Oct:** **Hindu:** Dussehra, the tenth day, ends Navratri, and in many places effigies of Ravana are burned. [Source](https://www.smartpuja.com/blog/dussehra-vijayadashami-2026-date-muhurat-puja/?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). - **Fri 23 Oct:** **Chinese:** Frost's Descent opens at 5:38 am ET (09:38 UTC) as autumn's final solar term. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuangjiang%5F%28solar%5Fterm%29?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). [](https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.357?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) Rama and Lakshmana Fighting Ravana, from a Dashavatara (Ten Incarnations \[of Vishnu\]) series, c. 1765, Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Chamba, Court of Raj Singh (reigned 1764–94), Gum tempera and gold on paper, The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Museum page](https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.357?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io). Rama and his brother Lakshmana face the ten-headed Ravana, the story behind the burning of effigies on Dussehra. ## A line to keep He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious. Sun Tzu, The Art of War, chapter 3. [](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40526?ref=the-flow-state-herald.ghost.io) ## How this was made Times are Eastern (ET), with UTC in brackets. The sky is calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris. Pictures come from museum open access collections and are credited in each caption. For reflection and enjoyment, not medical, financial or legal advice.